Easy Fat Quarter Drawstring Bag Tutorial

Summer is such a great time for teaching kids to sew. This summer I’m hoping to work on some simple sewing projects with my kids, so I’m always on the lookout for creative ideas and tutorials to use.

Which is why I love the Simple Fat Quarter Sewing Series at Ucreate. There are some really great tutorials for some fun and creative sewing projects, perfect for light summer sewing, all using one of those fabric staples: Fat Quarters. (Are you wondering what is a Fat Quarter? This will explain!) Fat Quarters are such a great way to collect some of your favorite pieces of fabric, without having to invest a lot of money. I love that Kari and Becky started this series to show of lots of great ways to use them.

Today I am sharing a tutorial for a super-simple draw-string bag made from one fat quarter and 25″ of ribbon as part of that series. These bags come together SO fast. They’re perfect for teaching kids to sew – or anyone else for that matter.

Start by trimming any selvage edges off the fat quarter. You will be left with a roughly 18″ x 22″ rectangle of fabric. (It’s okay if it’s not exact.) Fold down the top edge about 1/2″, press, and sew in place.

Fold the fat quarter in half width-wise with right-sides-together. Sew bottom and side edges together using a 3/8″ seam allowance. Stop and backstitch about 4″ from the top.

Press side seam allowance open, including 4″ portion that is not sewn together. Carefully sew those edges down, starting at the top of one side, pivoting about 1/4″ below the opening and backstitching once, then up the other side.

Fold top edge down 2″ and pin in place. Sew this flap down to create your casing. I just stitched right on top of the stitching for the hemmed edge. Go all the way around the bag.

I then stitched around the top edge of the bag about 1/4″ away from the edge to give it more of a finished look.

This is how it will look. You can go ahead and add the drawstring now, if you like.

I added a quick gusset (fancy way of saying boxed bottom) to give my bag a little more shape. This is purely optional. But it’s super easy if you want to do it. Take the bottom corners of the bag and fold them so that the side and bottom seams run down the center, creating a point. Measure down 2″ from the point, mark, and draw a line perpendicular to the side seam.

Sew right on the drawn line and trim away excess fabric 1/4″ away from the seam. Repeat with other corner. If you want your gusset more or less boxy, you can measure more or less than the 2″ away from the point and mark and sew accordingly. The options are endless…

Turn bag right side out. Put a safety pin at one end of your ribbon to help thread it through your casing.

Tie the ends of the ribbon in a knot. And you’re done. It’s seriously that easy!

This bag finishes at about 13″ long by 10″ wide. In addition to altering the gusset, you can change the length of the bag by trimming some of the fat quarter length before you start sewing. I promise after you’ve made one, you’ll be able to start whipping them out quickly. They’re great for holding craft projects, birthday presents, Legos, you name it.

Here are a few other simple Fat Quarter projects. These projects are perfect for beginning sewers and once again, would be good summer sewing projects with kids too.

I’m also giving away a fat quarter bundle of Ann Kelle prints from Robert Kaufman you can use with all of that sewing inspiration. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. Giveaway open until Friday, June 28 at midnight MST. GIVEAWAY CLOSED

I must start my little kiddies off on learning to sew something. My little girl of 3.5 wants to so i gave her some fabric, needle and thread and she cannot do it. She said she doesn&#39;t want the thread. I said, well it wasn&#39;t really sewing then!

I make something similar and use them as shoe bags when I travel. I also have a light one and dark one to keep unmentionables when traveling, the light bag has clean, the dark has dirty. I make them as gifts too!

What a cute idea! I should do that with my daughter. She would love that. She is always asking to sew with me, but she can sit on my lap and use the machine I would think. I will have to check out your tutorial.

Wow! Those really do look quick and easy! Can&#39;t wait to try one for my niece! The drawstring will be so much easier for her to use than a buttoned or zippered bag.<br /><br />Those Anne Kelle fabrics are great!

I made similar bags for my daughter who travels a lot, she uses them to pack her shoes in, and a laminate one for anything wet. My grandbabies will turn 2 in July (triplets) so have a few years to wait until they learn to sew

Thanks for this post. I&#39;m teaching my 2 daughters and a couple of their friends to sew this summer and I was just looking for something else easy to make besides pillow cases! Thanks…and thanks for having the giveaway.

Yes, I know the &#39;Call the Midwife&#39; show. Can you watch an episode without a tear? I loved it so much when it was shown on TV that I bought the DVDs, and I recently bought the first of the books it is based on for a friend.

Super cute little bags! These are perfect little project bags or even gift bags as well. Thanks for the tutorial!<br /><br />Thank you for a super giveaway and a chance to win.<br /><br />usairdoll(at)gmail(dot)com<br />

A drawstring bag is the first thing I learned how to sew – it stored all my sewing things in it for classes after that. My favorite part was picking out the fabric from the entire store! 🙂 <br /><br />The Ann Kelle prints make me think of a summer picnic, love it!

Thank you for this great pattern. I volunteer at our local Ronanld McDonald House teaching the kids how to sew, this will be great and I was really getting tired of helping them make pillowcases. Thank and please keep these great easy itdeas coming.

It&#39;s hard to resist a little gift bag. I like to make them and take them to my book club meeting filled with little goodies! This is a sweet little tutorial (and a lovely giveaway) – thank you!<br /> – sunshdws at yahoo dot com

I am an advisor for a sorority and lots of the girls want to learn how to sew so i&#39;m always looking for simple projects they can do. And those fabrics are cute too! Thanks for the chance to win – i&#39;m really enjoying your blog and so glad i switched to bloglovin and found you as a &quot;featured&quot; or popular blog for diy/crafts/sewing.

Super, super cute! I&#39;ve been wanting to teach my 11 year old granddaughter to sew and this bag is perfect! Gotta go…off to Joanne&#39;s to get couple yards of cute fabric…much cheaper than fat quarters ;). Thanks Amy!

Hi Amy! I just wanted to drop a note on this post to let you know that I came across this tutorial, whipped up one of these bags, and loved them so much that I decided to make 55 of them for The Stash Bash goodie bags! What a great tutorial. Thanks 🙂 I miss you and hope you are well. Thank goodness for social media.

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I just made six of these as project bags for my knitting. All different sizes. I am usually one to fight with my sewing machine, but this pattern really helped me out a lot. It only took a few hours and they look much better than I thought I was capable of. Thanks!!<br /><br />Stefanie

I think you recently published a tutorial on a tote bag that used linen and had inset strips made from pre cut strips. Now can&#39;t seem to find it….can you publish reference?? or the name of tutorial?? Thanks AMY!!

Miranda koontz

September 23, 2015 at 8:16 pm

I can usually follow the directions on your tutorials…much better than some other tutorials from other sites!! You have taught me how to make a quilt…half square triangles…Christmas stockings…borders…binding…scrappy table runners…and pumpkin table runners!! So…that’s another reason why I was hoping the drawstring bag tutorial would work as a tissue box cover…I can understand your instructions!! 😉

Beth

January 22, 2016 at 2:54 pm

Years later but I just found your tutorial on Craigslist and gave it a shot! I’m a very very beginner sewer, just got my machine for Christmas. This was by far the easiest tutorial I have found so far and was able to make one of these cute bags in about 30 minutes! Thanks for sharing!

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